C H I 
diately placed his finger on the north-weftern provinces 
of China, as the place where he faid the Chinas of Menu 
firft eftablifbed thenvfelves. 
In the opinion of Sir William Jones, this is complete 
evidence that the Chinefe are-really defcended from an 
Indian race j but he does not believe that the Chinefe 
empire, as we now confider it, was formed when the laws 
of Menu were firft collected. By an accurate companion 
of ancient Sanfcrit writings, he has beeirable to fix the 
period of the compilation of thofe laws at between 1000 
and 1500 years before Chrilt j but by the evidence of Con¬ 
fucius, he proves, that, if the Chinefe empire was then 
formed, it could be only in its cradle in the 12th century 
before our era. In the fecond part of the work, inti tied 
Liin Yu, Confucius declares, that “ although he, like 
other men, could relate, as mere leffons of morality, the 
biftories of the firft and fecond imperial houfes, yet, for 
want of evidence, he could give no certain account of 
them.” Now, lays Sir William, if the Chinefe themfelves 
do not pretend that any hiftorical monument exifted in 
the age of Confucius preceding the rife of their third 
dynafty, about 1100 years before the Chriftian epoch, we 
may juftly conclude, that their empire was then in its in¬ 
fancy, and did not grow to maturity till fome ages after¬ 
wards. Nay, he is inclined to bring its origin ftill lower 
down. It was not, fays he, till the eighth century before 
the birth of our Saviour, that a final l kingdom was erected 
in the province of Schen-fi, the capital of which flood 
nearly in the 35th degree of northern latitude, and about 
five degrees to the weft of Si-gan. That country and its 
metropolis were both called Chin ; and'the dominion of its 
princes was gradually extended to the eaft and weft. The 
territory of Chin, fo called by the old Hindoos, by the 
Perfians, and by the Chinefe, gave its name to a race of 
emperors, whofe tyranny made their memory fo unpopu¬ 
lar, that the modern inhabitants of China hold the word 
in abhorrence, and fpeak of themfelves as the people of 
a milder and more virtuous dynafty: but it is highly pro¬ 
bable, that the whole nation defcended fron the Chinas 
of Menu, and mixing with the Tartars , by whom the 
plains of Honan and the more fouthern provinces were 
thinly inhabited, formed by degrees the race of men 
whom w'e now fee in poffeflion of the nobleft empire in 
Alia. 
In fupport of this opinion, which the accomplifhed au¬ 
thor oilers as the refuit of long and anxious inquiries, 
he obferves, that the Chinefe have no ancient monuments 
from which their origin can be traced, even by plaufible 
conjecture ; that their fciences are wholly exotic ; that 
their mechanic arts have nothing in them which any fet 
of men, in a country fo highly favoured by nature, might' 
not have difcovered and improved; that their philofophy 
feems yet in fo rude a Hate as hardly to deferve the ap¬ 
pellation ; and that their popular religion was imported 
from India in an age comparatively modern. He then in- 
ftitutes a comparifon between the mythology of the Chi¬ 
nefe and that of the Hindoos; of which the refuit is, 
that the former people had an ancient fyltern of ceremo¬ 
nies and fuperllitions, which has an apparent affinity with 
fome parts of the oldeft Indian worfhip. “ They believed 
in the agency of genii or tutelary fpirits, preliding over 
the liars and the clouds; over lakes and rivers, moun¬ 
tains, valleys, and woods; over certain regions and town's; 
over all the elements, of which, like the Hindoos, they 
reckoned live; and particularly over fire, the moll bril¬ 
liant of them. To thofe deities they offered victims on 
high places. And the following palfage from one of their 
facred books, fays Sir William, is very much in the ftyle 
of the Brahmans : ‘ Even they who perform a facrifice 
with due reverence, cannot perfectly allure themfelves 
that the divine l'pirits accept their oblations ; and far lefs 
can they, who adore the gods withlangour and ofcitancy, 
clearly perceive their facred illapfes.’ Thefe (continues 
the prefident) are imperfeCt traces indeed, but they are 
traces, of an affinity between the religion of Menu ami 
Vol.IV. No.209. 
N A. 437 
that of the Chinas, whom he names among the apoftates 
from it; and befides them, we difcover many other very 
lingular marks of relation between the Chinefe and the 
old Hindoos. This relation, he thinks, appears in the 
remarkable period of 432,000, and the cycle of fixty 
years; in the predilection for the myltical number nine ; 
in many fimilar falls and great feftivals, efpecially at the 
folftices and equinoxes; in the oblequies, confining of 
rice and fruits offered to the manes of their anceftors ; in 
the dread of dying childlefs, left fuch offerings Ihould be 
intermitted ; and perhaps in their common abhorrence 
of reef objeCls, which the Indians carried fo far, that Menu 
himlelf, where he allows a Brahman to trade, if he can¬ 
not otherwile fupport life, abfolutely forbids his trading 
in any fort of red cloths, whether linen, or woollen, or 
made of woven bark. In a word, fays Sir William 
Jones, all the circumftances which have been mentioned 
leem to prove (as far as fuch a queition admits proof), 
that the Chinefe and Hindoos were originally the fame 
people ; but having been feparated near 4000 years, they 
have retained few ftrong features of their ancient confan- 
guinity, efpecially as the Hindoos have preferved their 
old language and ritual, while the Chinefe very loon loft 
both; and the Hindoos have conftantly intermarried 
among themfelves, while the Chinefe, by a mixture of 
Tartarian blood from the time of their firft eftablifhment, 
have at length formed a race diftinCl in appearance both 
from Indians and Tartars.” 
Sir George''Staunton, who accompanied the earl of 
Macartney on his late embaffy to China, does not indeed 
direClly controvert this reafoning; yet he gives to the 
Chinele a much higher antiquity than Sir William Jones 
is inclined to allow them. Taking it for granted that 
their cycle is their 'own, and that it is not the offspring of 
aftronomical fcience, but of repeated oblervations, he 
feems to give credit to many of thofe annals of the em¬ 
pire, which fome other writers have confidered as fabu¬ 
lous. “ Next to the ftudies which teach the economy of 
life, the Chinefe, fays he, value moll the liiftory of the 
events of their own country, which is, to them, the globe; 
and of the celeftial movements which they had an oppor¬ 
tunity of obferving at the fame time.” In regard to the 
former, he tells us, tliat “ from about three centuries be¬ 
fore the Chriftian era, the tranfablions of the Chinefe 
empire have been regularly, and without any intervening 
chafm, recorded both in official documents and by private 
contemporary writers. Nowhere had hiltory become fo 
much an objebl of public attention, and nowhere mere 
the occupation of learned individuals. Every conlider- 
able town throughout the empire was a kind of univer- 
fity, in which degrees were conferred on the proficient in 
the hiltory and government of the date. Hiftorical works 
were multiplied throughout. The accounts of recent 
events were expofed to the correction of the witneffes of 
the fads, and compilations of former tranfaftions to the 
criticifms of rival writers.” In regard to the latter, the 
movements of the heavenly bodies, he thinks that in no 
country are there ftronger inducements or better oppor¬ 
tunities to watch them than in China; and hence lie in¬ 
fers, that the cycle of fixty years is of Chinele forma¬ 
tion. “ In a climate (fays he) favourable to aftronoiny, 
the balance of hours beyond the number of days during 
which the fun appeared to return oppofite to, and to ob- 
feure, or to mix among, the fame'fixed liars, might be af- 
certained in a fhort time; and occafioned the addition of 
a day to every 4th year, in order to maintain regularity in 
the computation of time, in regard to the return of the 
feafons ; but many ages mull have palled before a period 
could have been difcovered, in which the unequal returns 
of the fun and moon were lo accurately adjulted, that at 
its termination the new and full moons Ihould return, 
not only to the lame day, but within an hopr and a half 
of the time they had happened, when the period com¬ 
menced. The knowledge of fuch a period or cycle could 
be obtained only by a multiplicity of careful and accu- 
S T rate 
